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Wed, 19 Apr 2017 21:11:08 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4Homeschooling is Not Abusehttp://www.eduwrit.com/homeschooling-is-not-abuse/
http://www.eduwrit.com/homeschooling-is-not-abuse/#respondFri, 13 Mar 2015 12:00:10 +0000http://www.eduwrit.com/?p=6011Continue reading →]]>Miami’s CBS Local reported on an adoption bill already passed out of the House and waiting for a final reading/vote in the Florida Senate.

Adoption Bill Passes Amid Home-Schooling Questions

An amendment added to the bill Tuesday declared that Floridians cannot be denied the opportunity to adopt if they plan to home-school their adopted children. The provision has worried people who point to child-abuse cases in which crimes were committed by home-schooling foster and adoptive parents.

“I really feel that we’re leaving some children at risk,” said Rep. Joe Geller, D-Aventura.

But bill sponsor Rep. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, called boosting adoptions “one of the most loving and kind things we can do.”

Agree with the latter and find the assumptions by Representative Geller a shallow shot at parents loving those children enough to spend lots of time nurturing them. If these children were already in the foster care system, we could assume nothing would escape the government watch. But sometimes terrible things happen right out in the open.

As one Florida state senator stated after asking the logical questions – “there was absolutely no evidence … that would support discriminating against home-schooling families.”

Ironically, in her quote below, this judge missed the point. Negligent parents were caught and appearing in her court:

“Children who are home-schooled are isolated, not socializing with other children, and are not a part of the greater community,” said Cindy Lederman, a dependency court judge in Miami-Dade County’s 11th Judicial Circuit with 20 years experience. “In virtually every case in my courtroom where the parents claimed the children were being home-schooled, the children were not receiving education, they were not being taught by qualified people and they were not learning. It was just a clever way to hide the abuse and neglect.”

Of course, the solution for neglected and abused children is putting them into public school. But let’s mention school personnel repeatedly voiced concerns about Nubia and Victor Barahona before they were taken out of school. Nubia’s body was discovered in her adoptive father’s truck and her brother was horribly abused. The Miami Herald reported on the lawsuit against the Department of Children & Families:

“These people shouldn’t have had any children in their home,” he said. For instance, the Barahonas were allowed to adopt Nubia and Victor despite the misgivings of a guardian ad litem, an individual who represents children in the court system, who felt the parents were unfit.

“One of our main goals in pursuing cases like this is not only to compensate the kids, but to try to fix a system that is ridiculously broken and just never seems to get fixed,” Falzone said.

It can’t get much worse than this, but it does. One of the child protection investigators supposedly looking into these allegations of abuse and neglect in the Barahona “home” was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for engaging in sex with a foster child.

Who is watching out for these children?

So. Back to homeschooling families adopting foster children. This below is a good question from the CBS Local article:

“I’m going to choose a loving family every time,” he said. “And when you consider the fact that the president of the Senate, Andy Gardiner, and his wife Camille home-school their three children, how can public policy in our state say that Andy Gardiner and Camille Gardiner couldn’t adopt a child?”

Sometimes the speck of sawdust in an eye is only seen looking past the plank in one’s own eye. Homeschooling is just an easy target.

]]>http://www.eduwrit.com/homeschooling-is-not-abuse/feed/0Can’t Have Everythinghttp://www.eduwrit.com/cant-have-everything/
http://www.eduwrit.com/cant-have-everything/#commentsWed, 11 Mar 2015 12:17:00 +0000http://www.eduwrit.com/?p=6003Continue reading →]]>Homeschoolers get a bad rap many times because “we’re getting away with something.” We don’t go with the flow of mainstream education. We hear we’re too defensive many times. I like to say freedom isn’t free and unfortunately, we have to fight to keep it.

However. This article from Nebraska caught my eye and makes me see why some might view us as greedy and suspicious.

Kate Ratigan, a local restaurant owner, said her daughter is home-schooled for religious reasons.

The high school, she said, is a resource for the whole community, as all community members pay taxes, and said allowing her daughter to attend wouldn’t be taking away anything from Beatrice High School students.

“I don’t like the idea that if you don’t put your kids in high school you shouldn’t expect to get those benefits,” Ratigan said. “Those benefits don’t belong to the high school, they belong to the community. We give them to those kids so they can have that opportunity.”

Having some kids in public school in the past and others who were always homeschooled, I’ve seen the issues parents deal with in the schools. One of them is raising outrageous amounts of money for the prom/post-prom party. I would assume the Beatrice school has all that, along with fund-raising events starting as soon as the kid walks in the door as a freshman. I’m assuming Ms. Ratigan and her daughter didn’t participate in that. For that matter, if she’s homeschooling for “religious reasons,”, she probably wouldn’t care for the prom activities anyway.

I don’t get it.

That isn’t the worst part of this – the Ratigans don’t even live in that school district. They live in a different school district, but Beatrice is their “community,” so she feels entitled asking the town of Beatrice to take care of her daughter’s social event.

This, and the idea that homeschoolers deserve to be in public school sports (some parents will do anything to make it happen) is troubling to me.

I get it. In a world that is just and true, all kids should be able to participate in community sports, particularly when it’s funded by taxpayers. But we don’t live in that world. (Worse yet, I live in Illinois.) There will be a price to pay for all of us if some of us get their way.

If you build it, they will come. Around here, homeschool groups have created their own prom. It’s likely a lot less raucous and ridiculously expensive than school proms – i.e. reasonable.

Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling – March Madness. Homeschoolers could relate to the sense of madness we feel at times fussing over our children’s well-being and education. NCAA basketball is another frenzy starting the middle of this month. St. Patrick’s Day is one week from today and three days later, spring is officially sprung. This sort of madness can be fun and reflective.

Let’s start this Carnival with a fellow Illinoisan and long-time homeschooler Laurie Bluedorn at Trivium Pursuit – “If you are not enjoying the adventure of homeschooling — and it truly is an adventure — but are rather seeing it as a job which must be endured, perhaps you might consider changing your perspective.” Laurie’s blog – Are you experiencing homeschool burnout this month? passes along the reminder to relax. Her post’s first paragraph describes that state of madness many parents feel as they wonder if they are doing enough. My favorite mantra I learned was no one can do everything – just keep it quality-driven and fun.

One joyful piece of learning is art and SusanOnline suggests An Early Start with Art in The Every Day of Education blog. Susan says: “Art is a subject where children develop and exercise important skills by exploring on their own.” Hands-on art projects for little ones are wonderful in exploration of their world.

They were also fortunate to have an Experiment Extravaganza introducing them to the world of elements and experimentation. It’s easy to play with Element Concoctions using everyday products we have around the house. It looks like learning science was a good day when you see the pictures at Solagratiamom.

Household goods are used in many innovative ways by homeschoolers. With that savings and other financial considerations in mind, Karen at Living Unabridged offers thoughtful tips in her blog – Homeschool Budget: Burden or Blessing? Karen says: “Budget” doesn’t have to be synonymous with “Burden”. Here are 17+ ways to stretch your homeschool budget, no matter how high or low it is.

Finally, the Carnival of Homeschool founder – the Cate family, offered their post on Why Homeschool. Janine writes about one of the benefits of homeschooling – allowing children to move at their own pace in The Curse of Grade Level Standards. Each family and each child have their own “normal”, which rarely matches up to grade level standards at an exact point in their lives.

I truly appreciated Janine’s description of an IEP meeting and the “social sophistication” displayed by their child. Homeschoolers have been saying all along we generally know how to socialize, but “school socialization” is a whole new bag of tricks. Illinois’ Social/Emotional Learning Standards have always troubled me for public school students’ sake, along with the concern that it will land on homeschoolers’ backs at some point. That’s something that makes me a bit mad.

There you have it, the Carnival of Homeschooling – March Madness.

It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood. We are able to be home with our kids and life is good. Enjoy!

]]>http://www.eduwrit.com/hosting-carnival-of-homeschooling/feed/0Heads Up Illinois Homeschoolershttp://www.eduwrit.com/heads-illinois-homeschoolers/
http://www.eduwrit.com/heads-illinois-homeschoolers/#respondThu, 05 Mar 2015 14:49:15 +0000http://www.eduwrit.com/?p=5939Continue reading →]]>Early this year, this broken state’s perennial Speaker of the House gave a speech to incoming lawmakers and other interested parties at the start of one more governor’s tenure. Besides the usual, part of Speaker Madigan’s plan is to address children’s mental health and those “falling through the cracks.” Connecticut’s Adam Lanza was mentioned and it was noted he was homeschooled. Here’s how The Leader’s concern was laid out in the Chicago Tribune:

Madigan also unveiled plans for a group to study a report made in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, when 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza killed more than two dozen students and adults. Madigan said the goal would be to develop recommendations regarding safety and mental health to try to prevent a similar tragedy.

“There were several missed opportunities to help Lanza. Additional intervention might’ve helped,” Madigan said. “We should do all that we can to prevent kids like Lanza from falling through the cracks.”

Because of the horrible Sandy Hook school massacre, some have not missed the opportunity to hone in on a non-problem – homeschooling. Last fall, City-Journal’s correspondent Matthew Hennessy noted the issues being created for Connecticut homeschoolers in the aftermath of Newtown’s tragedy. Governor Malloy set up a Sandy Hook Advisory Commission full of ‘experts’. From Hennessy last fall:

Established to investigate the causes and consequences of the 2012 massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, the Sandy Hook commission issued an interim report last year that nodded appropriately to gun safety, school security, and emergency planning, but made no mention of homeschooling. Now the panel has determined that among the things that went wrong in the run-up to that tragedy was that the killer, Adam Lanza, was homeschooled briefly as a teenager. They are recommending that the state give local officials approval power over parents who wish to homeschool children with social, behavioral, and emotional challenges. “Given the individuals involved in the tragedy that formed the basis of this commission, we believe that it is very germane,” said commissioner Harold I. Schwartz, psychiatrist-in-chief at Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living. “The facts leading up to this incident support the notion [that there is a] risk in not addressing the social and emotional learning needs of [homeschooled] children.” Schwartz admitted that the commission didn’t have access to Lanza’s school files and medical records. But he maintained that those records would support the commission’s proposals.

This concept moved west to Illinois. Madigan’s Violence Prevention Task Force is in force and their second hearing is set for March 10 at 4 pm. The subject matter is: Barriers to Care and Isolation of Families. Homeschoolers, does this tripe regarding “isolation” and “falling through the cracks” sound familiar? It should. As always, the question of who should care for families – the government or the families – can be raised. I know who might suffer everyday repercussions of stress and family dysfunction. It’s generally not the person in the cubicle, even if they are supposed to be there to help.

Governor Rauner’s wife spoke at the first hearing. Besides being Illinois’ first lady, she is Ounce of Prevention’s president. She believes “the seeds of resilience and of quality mental and social emotional development are laid in the very, very first years of life.” So true, except she champions birth to five-year-old governmental programs. The results seem counter-productive. It makes more sense to uphold parents – a parent or family member staying home with the children in a secure and nurturing learning environment rather than an institution. The current mantra from powerful leaders appears to be no family members should be home and if they are home, their nest should be laid open to home visits to make sure subjective approval is met. Frankly, the basis for Illinois’ social-emotional standards of learning is quite creepy. Any homeschooler asked about their child’s socialization at a gathering gets the irony.

Here comes my usual question. Don’t these people have better things to do?

Even Gregg Harris – Madigan’s appointed head of this task force pointed this out on his website last year.

Lawmakers need to address the rising number of children who are dying from abuse and neglect in Illinois and also what more can be done to prevent deaths of children who have come onto the radar of state child-welfare workers, a key legislator said Friday in response to a Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ investigation.

==

She pointed to the death of Christopher Valdez, a 4-year-old boy from Gage Park on the city’s Southwest Side who was beaten to death in 2011 by his mother’s boyfriend. Shortly before his death, the police had arrested his mother for beating him, and she was convicted. But DCFS and the courts allowed Christopher to resume living with her even though other family members said they were willing to care for him.

We can’t make sense of this initiative when little babies and children are dying under the watch of the government. But yet some powerful entities are reaching out to grab onto parents who cultivate their children’s relationship so much they dare to educate them in a non-traditional home-based manner. The overwhelming political majority, along with public school cohorts, have concerns about Illinois homeschoolers’ freedoms and their desire to grab us has been unveiled here and there. The Assistant Majority Leader and Education Committee Vice-Chair Kimberly Lightford thinks Illinois homeschool freedoms should be “tweaked.” At the Senate Education Committee hearing a few years back, she said she couldn’t understand how we homeschoolers could stand being with our children all day. So. There’s that.

Again, from the Violence Prevention Task Force Chair’s own site:

Analyzing 10 years of Kane’s reports about DCFS-involved abuse and neglect deaths, the Sun-Times and WBEZ found there have been 228 such deaths between July 1, 2002, and June 30, 2012. The number of deaths more than doubled between 2010 and 2011 — from 15 to 34 — then held steady at 34 in 2012.

Statewide, there were 111 child abuse and neglect death cases in a 12-month period ending in mid-2013, the most in Illinois in 30 years.

Responding to the findings, Harris said: “I’m going to be following up on the investigative pieces that the Sun-Times and WBEZ reported and certainly talk to principals, talk to experts in the field. We very well may have some hearings.”

Over 4,000 homeschoolers traveled to the Springfield Capitol a few years ago to tell legislators to leave us alone. They did. But it was clear what was wanted from most sitting at the dais and it wasn’t to keep the status quo of Illinois homeschool freedoms. Heads up, Illinois homeschoolers. We are a strong and independent collection of parents, but our opposition is big, determined and well funded. If they can’t come through our front door, our tax-funded employees will sneak around to the back door.